magic realism in Things Fall Apart

[roo]

Hi , Im currently reading Things fall Apart and using post colonial ideas as a way of analysing it.Magic realism is a post colonial idea, but i dont quiter understand what it maens.does Achebe use magic realism in Things Fall Apart.

[linz]

At the very top of this forum you will find the 'General Literature' section, it is there that you should post this question. I hope to read the response also, because I am curious about the book.

[Durgamol]

i don't really think that Achebe used magic realism here...You should read small about Nigerian religion and believes - it is exactly like in the book - he just described what could really happen by then ("happen" in the understanding of characters from the book)

[kratsayra]

Yes, I agree with Durgamol. This is not magical realism, which I think should be very selectively applied to literature, especially when it is not specifically coming out from a certain set of South American and Caribbean writers.

In Things Fall Apart not all of the beliefs are presented as being completely seamless with everyday life, as in magical realism. Achebe points to the way that even the belief system cannot hold up under the stress of colonialism, and it is the integrity of the belief system and the society as a whole that enables the "magical" things to occur.

An aside - I think I know who Durgamol is . . . do I know you?

[Midnight Runner]

not to beat the very dead horse, but Things Fall Apart is not the post colonial book you want to look at for magical realism. Rather, try Salman Rushdie's 'Shame', which is riddled with imperialist and colonialist commentary and utilizes magical realism to great effect.

Things Fall Apart is a great book, but I think it has enough going on without adding magical realism.

[kratsayra]

For anglophone African literature that might work better with postcolonialism, there is also the work of Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. Again, I'm weary of the term magical realism. But there is all kinds of crazy stuff going on in Ngugi's books. There's a lot that could be done with them.